Chapter 6
Sophia could have punched Pirate for his lack of poker face. Damn, hadn’t the man ever told a lie before? He was just standing there slack jawed, which made her declaration all the more obvious as false.
A snort from in front of them drew her attention to Fletcher. Fucking Fletcher. Sophia hadn’t thought about him in years and now twice in the same day? Fuck. Maybe he was like Beetlejuice where he appears after you say his name too many times. She wondered if there was a way to banish Fletcher too.
“Does he know you’re dating him?” Fletcher asked her in the most condescending tone.
Sophia ground her teeth together. You cannot kick him in the balls, you cannot kick him in the balls, you cannot kick him in the balls… Then she amended, at least not in front of Mom.
Fletcher’s retort seemed to snap Pirate out of his shock. He immediately put an arm around Sophia’s waist and drew her into his side. His hand had a possessive feel to it, making Sophia think that the man actually did know how to act.
Rather than addressing Fletcher, though, Pirate turned to her mom. “I apologize about you finding out this way, Mrs. Groveton. Sophia and I decided to keep our new romance a secret until after the wedding. We didn’t want to steal Jasmine’s thunder.”
Well that at least was true, but them dating wouldn’t have stolen Jazz’s thunder. Them waking up married and the drama of getting a divorce would have. But hopefully it was enough of a reason to not make her mom question them further or push pairing her with Fletcher for the wedding.
Shit, how was she going to explain this to Jazz now? Her mom would be expecting Pirate and her to act like a couple at the wedding. Jazz would definitely notice that. She was not okay with keeping secrets from her bestie.
She supposed telling Jazz that Pirate and she were faking being a couple to appease her mom would work. It just felt like she was sinking further into the rabbit hole of deception.
Sophia was not averse to lying to get her way. But the one person she refused to lie to was Jasmine. Keeping the drunken, accidental marriage a secret from Jazz was wrong, but Sophia was doing it to protect her. Jasmine so rarely got into the spotlight. Sophia would be damned if her impulsive, rash disposition took that away from her bestie. After everything Jasmine and Jumper went through to get to where they were, and all they still struggled through, she refused to take away from Jasmine’s big day.
Besides, it wasn’t that big of a deal. Pirate and Sophia were not dating and they were not staying married. The divorce would be finalized in a little under six weeks. Jasmine and Jumper would be on their cross country motorcycle honeymoon tour by then and be none the wiser.
Jazz did not need to know. No one needed to know.
It was entirely believable that Sophia would lie to her mom to get out of having Fletcher as her date to the wedding.
Sophia did not give her mom time to argue or reply to Pirate’s apology. “Okay, now that that’s settled, we’ll be going now.”
She gave Pirate’s arm a hard yank and steered him out of the room. She could hear footsteps following them but ignored them. They were too heavy to be her mom’s so they could only be Fletcher’s.
“Go away, douche canoe,” she called over her shoulder without looking back. Pirate still had his arm around her waist, but he’d dropped his hand to cup her ass as soon as they were out of her mother’s sight. Was he doing it for show? Because Fletcher was following them? She doubted it. Pirate had proved again and again how much he admired her ass.
Which Sophia couldn’t help but feel a bit cocky about. She didn’t have much of an ass or tits, so it felt really good that Pirate seemed to appreciate what she had.
Fletcher followed them outside and down the large marble staircase. Her parents’ drive was gray brick with some sort of resin over it to make it smooth. They’d redone it a few years back when her dad had expanded the garage to accommodate his growing collection of antique cars. Sophia had never liked the added pretentious feel of the new drive. Her parents didn’t flaunt their money, per se, but they didn’t hide it either.
There was nothing wrong with flaunting their money. She wouldn’t hold it against them if they did. Her parents had done very well for themselves and they deserved everything they wanted that made them happy. But it didn’t change the fact that both her parents, her siblings, and Sophia herself had been born with a silver spoon in their mouths.
Sure, she splurged on occasion. Or when she was pissed enough at her best friend’s mom to fly across the country to yell at her. But there was a reason she kept holding onto her red Beetle, why her clothes were bought at Walmart , why she donated her time and money so much to charities…
At the end of the day, Sophia was grateful for the ability to live comfortably while doing all the things she wanted, but she didn’t like how others looked at her because of her money. As Pirate had said on the plane, that was a very rich person thing to say.
Sophia had never struggled to pay a bill in her life. She’d never worried about rent or if her next paycheck would be enough. She’d never had to skip a meal to make food stretch or turn down an activity because she needed gas money. She was extremely lucky to have been born under the circumstances she had been.
Pirate worked a shitty job at the local high school, something that was well below his expertise, because he needed a job that gave him the flexibility to be there for his brother. She loved his idea about working with veterans with PTSD. It was a cause that meant something to him, so he would never fail at it. His experiences with caring for his brother, as well as his own trauma when he lost his leg, gave him a personal knowledge that others, like her, would lack if they tried to pursue the same endeavor.
She wondered how Pirate would feel if she offered up the startup money he needed. The school year would be ending in two months. It would be a good time to change careers and not leave the school in a lurch mid-year.
But she knew what Pirate’s answer would be without even opening her mouth. He would not accept her money. He hadn’t even accepted it to pay for his half of their cross country trip. It had taken him a couple of paychecks, but he’d paid her back. She tried to refuse it—and she’d ended up over his knee with her red ass in the air.
Pirate led her over to where he parked his hog. He picked up her helmet, turned, and placed it over her head. Then he worked the strap under her chin. She liked the feel of his rough hands on her chin as he brushed against her skin. Heat flared in her belly, making her consider telling him just to take them to her place and forget about her car.
A haughty huff came from behind her. Sophia looked over her shoulder as Pirate looked over her head at Fletcher.
Her ex—and God, she hated that she’d ever let this man put his grubby, slimy hands on her—was standing a couple of yards away from them. Putting his pristine white riding gloves on while holding his helmet under his right armpit.
“Have you seen my wheels?” he asked them. “Picked her up only a day ago. The dealership tried to talk me into another model, but I knew this one was the right one for me. More power, more speed.” His eyes roamed over Sophia in an open way he hadn’t done in front of her mother. “If there’s one thing I know how to handle, it’s fast women.”
She expected Pirate to make a snappy retort or to tell Fletcher to fuck off, but instead he casually walked her around the back of his bike. Then he straddled it. She followed suit, pressing her front to his leather cut. Her hands went to his thighs. He turned the bike on, making her body vibrate in all the right places.
“Are you sure you want to ride on that piece of junk, Sophia?” Fletcher asked her, stepping closer. “My ride’s a lot smoother?—”
Pirate suddenly revved his engine.
Fletcher shot him a glare before turning his attention back to Sophia. “I would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you priv?—”
Pirate’s engine cut him off again.
Fletcher’s jaw ticked. Sophia didn’t even bother hiding her smile. Fletcher tried again. “There’s some things I would like to discuss?—”
The roar of Pirate’s engine interrupted him for the third time. Sophia’s laughter also attributed to the noise.
Fletcher scowled. “I’ll be at your house tonight at seven. We’ll discuss things then.”
With that, Fletcher stomped off towards his own bike. He put his helmet on, mounted, and then turned on his own engine. The rev was like a house cat’s purr compared to the Harley ’s lion roar.
Fletcher skidded through a donut, spinning around in two tight circles, before shooting toward the road down the drive. Halfway, he pulled a wheelie.
Pirate and Sophia stared after him.
“Great,” Sophia scoffed. “Now I need to find somewhere else to be tonight.”
Pirate looked over his shoulder at her. Neither of their helmets’ faceplates were down so she could see the amusement on his face as well as the heat in his eyes. “He’s welcome to come over, but all he’ll find is me balls deep inside you.”
Her breath hitched. She should not have found that statement so arousing. She didn’t mind some outside fun, like what they’d done that afternoon at the overlook, but she was not an exhibitionist. She had no desire to have someone actually see Pirate fucking her.
But hear them?
Her lips spread into a wide grin at the thought of what Fletcher’s face would look like if he approached her front door, only to hear Pirate bring her to orgasm inside.
“That plan has merit,” she said wickedly.
“Unlike yours to keep our marriage a secret?” he shot back at her with both eyebrows raised.
“Shh…” Sophia chided. “Even the shrubbery has ears around here.”
“Fine. Then we’re going to the clubhouse where you can explain to me why you told your mom we are dating in the privacy of my room.” He lowered his faceplate and sat forward again.
Pirate pulled out of the driveway in a less showy fashion than Fletcher had.
Most of the club was in the communal Pentagon’s backyard while the kids played on the large playground equipment there when Sophia and Pirate pulled onto the property. Pirate parked his hog among the sea of his club brothers’ sleds in hopes that his wasn’t readily noticeable.
They slipped inside the back door from the patio and down the hall that led to the members’ apartments. The rooms themselves were small. The property used to belong to a distillery company and the apartments had been meeting rooms that private parties could rent out. Each one had a bathroom and a small kitchenette. The fact that the room was barely wide enough to fit an adult sized mattress made the small rooms comfortable for men coming back from living in the military barracks but not for a family.
Pirate used his room as a getaway more recently than he ever had before. Living with his brother and his brother’s new fiancée had been interesting to say the least. He’d walked in on the two a few times, but there had also been specific times when Pirate had stayed at the clubhouse to offer them private use of the apartment.
He knew the two of them were saving up for a house. Money was tight for the couple since Jumper was unable to work due to his head injury. Pirate didn’t mind that he was the one paying rent and utilities. Jasmine pitched in where she could, plus she’d insisted on purchasing all the food for the apartment after she moved in. She also gave free vet care for Pirate’s new dog, Kidd. In the end, it all worked out. Jumper would hopefully be able to start pitching in again after getting back from his honeymoon.
There wasn’t much in his clubhouse apartment. He had some beers in the fridge, some snacks in the single cabinet over the sink… There was a change of clothes too and some travel toiletries in the bathroom. No pictures or novelties to make it his own. It could have been anyone’s apartment.
When the Honeys had been around, he’d had the occasional tête-à-tête with one in his room before they went their separate ways. It had just been a convenient location and, unlike some of his club brothers, Pirate had never been one for public sex. When Pirate had first prospected for the club, Bear had been the club’s biggest exhibitionist before he’d met, knocked up, and then married Tessa.
Recently, he’d been using the room in the same fashion with Sophia. They’d sneak inside, go at each other, and then sneak back out. Much like they were doing now. It hadn’t bothered Pirate before.
So then why did it feel like he was doing something wrong now as he coaxed Sophia through the apartment door while keeping an eye and an ear out for any of his club brothers?
She immediately took off her jacket, heading over to the mini fridge to get them a beer. Neither one had drunk anything more than a beer in a single setting since waking up hungover and married. Sometimes they even shared one rather than each having their own.
“I take it Fletcher’s an ex who cheated on you.”
“Ding-ding-ding,” she rang out, tipping her beer in his direction. “Give the man his detective’s badge. Figured that you, did you?”
Pirate narrowed his eyes at her sarcastic response. “Did you love him?”
Both of them froze at the unexpected question. Sophia looked a bit like a deer in the headlights. Pirate wasn’t really sure why he’d asked the question. It wasn’t any of his business. But the idea of Sophia being with that pompous wiener made acid churn in his gut.
The idea that she could have been in love with him made Pirate want to punch something. Specifically Fletcher’s face.
But he wasn’t jealous. He couldn’t be. He wasn’t with Sophia so there was no reason for him to be jealous.
Sophia took a sip of her beer and then handed it over to him. He accepted the cold glass bottle as she said, “No. Fletcher, Carlos, Jazz, and I were friends all through elementary school. My parents and Fletcher’s are from the same social circle, if you catch my drift. His parents loved my parents’ idea of sending their kids to public school to teach them humility. It was a lesson lost on Fletcher, though. He changed when we got into middle school. He and Carlos had a falling out and Fletcher left our little group to go hang with the jocks and popular kids.”
“Clearly you weren’t dating when you were in elementary school. So eventually you two became friends again?” He sat on the edge of his bed.
Sophia shrugged. “I wouldn’t say that, but he certainly had the bad boy vibe going in high school that caught my attention. We were always together outside of school because of our parents. Unlike Jazz and Carlos, I could never really escape him.”
She walked up to Pirate, took the beer back from him, but didn’t take a drink. “If you must know, I lost my virginity to that asshole when I was sixteen. We were at some function in Pittsburgh, escaped out the back, and ended up at one of the hotels his father owns. You don’t need the details beyond that.”
Good, because he did not want them. “Did he take advantage of you?”
Sophia shook her head. “No, but I had bigger hearts in my eyes about it than he did. I thought we were dating and continued to sleep with him. He thought we weren’t and continued to sleep with other girls. You can guess the rest.”
“You found out, had a very Sophia-like reaction, and he lost a testicle?”
She snorted, which echoed into the beer bottle she’d been bringing up to her lips. “A toe actually.”
Pirate’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”
She shrugged innocently. “They were able to reattach it.”
He couldn’t help but grin, despite the weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. A feeling of pride washed over him. It was so strong, one might have thought it was his own accomplishment he was boasting about. Sophia truly was one of a kind. He’d never met another girl like her. Doubted he ever would.
“I never had feelings for him,” she pressed on. “Not ones that really mattered. But everyone remembers their first whether they want to or not. I’m just cursed that he was mine.”
That was true enough. Pirate’s was his hometown’s librarian, Loretta Calder. He’d been just shy of his eighteenth birthday and she’d been… Well, old enough to have known better than to screw a teenager in the back office but still young enough for the experience to not have been creepy.
With the number of his club brothers falling for their women in recent years, including his own brother, Pirate had heard many of them say that first wasn’t as important as last . The idea being that what either of them in the relationship had done in their past didn’t matter because they had each other now. That concept of being the final appealed to them.
He knew it was different for the genders. A lot of men refused to be with a woman who had a high count. It wasn’t something that had ever mattered to Pirate because he’d never bothered to ask. He’d never been with a woman long enough for it to matter.
He realized with Sophia he had almost a strong desire not to know . He didn’t think his sanity could take it if he knew how many men she’d slept with prior to him.
Which, again, made absolutely no sense.
What Sophia and he had going wasn’t permanent. They weren’t dating and they were about to get divorced—with no one but Keys the wiser. They hadn’t discussed how long they were going to keep sleeping together. Pirate supposed it made sense for it to end when their secret marriage did.
And that did not sit well with him at all.
“What’s got your panties in a bunch?” Sophia asked, stepping between his legs.
His thighs automatically widened for her, though his eyes glared at her implication. “You know damn well that I don’t wear panties.”
She circled her arms around his neck. “I think your fine ass would look good in a pair of bright pink panties. Or better yet, a red pair with a pirate flag over the back.”
He put his hands on her hips. “I suppose that will have to be one of the universe’s many unanswered questions, because that’ll never happen.”
“Wanna bet?” she inquired before lowering her mouth to his.
Pirate opened for her. Loving how, even though she acted submissive in bed, she was still just as aggressive as he was. Their tongues swirled in a dance between their mouths, their hot breath mingling.
Sophia moved up to straddle his lap. His hands went to her ass, squeezing her through her leather pants.
He was so, so tempted to pull down that back zipper. He was calling himself all sorts of stupid when he pulled his hand away and then finally his mouth.
She blinked down at him, clearly surprised by this turn of events. To her credit, he was pretty sure he’d never pulled away from her before.
“We were keeping this,” he indicated between them with a pointer finger, “a secret. Why then did you tell your mom we were dating?”
“It was the easiest way to get her off my back. It doesn’t change anything between us.”
“Other than the fact that your mom is going to tell people?”
Sophia shrugged. “I’ll need to talk to Jazz. She’s the only one who really matters.”
“And tell her what? Jasmine was the reason we weren’t telling anyone anything anyway.”
Sophia grinned down at him. “Say that again ten times fast.”
He swatted his hand against her bottom. Sophia gasped and then ground her hot core down on top of his erection. Just because he’d stopped them from continuing did not mean that he was not just as affected by her body on his as she was about being there.
“Sophia!” he snapped. “Answer the damn question.”
She sighed and brought her right hand forward. He’d forgotten she’d been holding the beer bottle. Probably a good thing he’d stopped or that beer might have ended up all over the covers.
After finishing off the beer, she bent to put the bottle on the floor at the foot of the bed. Pirate kept a tight hold on her hips so she couldn’t topple off of him.
Her face was somber as she rose. “Look, I don’t like keeping secrets from Jazz. If we hadn’t gotten drunkenly married two months before she was getting married for real, the two of us would be laughing our asses off about my antics and she’d throw me a divorce party on the day it’s official. I feel awful about keeping this from her. In our entire friendship, I’ve only kept one other secret from her. The only reason I can even stomach this one is because we’re not a real couple.”
Pirate’s eyes narrowed slightly. “What’s the other secret?” he asked curiously.
She shook her head, dramatically clamping her mouth shut.
Now that the beer bottle was out of the way, Pirate had no hesitation about throwing her onto her stomach on the mattress. Her fun burst of laughter at being tossed quickly turned into moans of pleasure and pain as Pirate landed ten quick, hard swats to her leather covered ass cheeks. The little minx even put her knees under her to raise her ass higher for him.
Pirate lowered the zipper of her pants over her ass crack. He loved seeing her red, glowing cheeks as he peeled her pants down over her hips. Loved even more that she was wearing a thong that left her cheeks bare for his gaze.
Bending down, he lowered his mouth to her right cheek. He bit her tender skin. Not enough to leave a mark this time, but enough to make his point. As much as he enjoyed marking her skin, he did not want to make it painful for her to sit down. Uncomfortable, sure. So she would remember whose hand was on her ass when she wasn’t with him, but not painful. He wasn’t a sadist.
Sophia gasped at his bite. She wiggled her butt at him, but he ignored the blatant invitation.
He went to her other cheek and licked her skin, raising gooseflesh along her ass and what he could see of her lower back and upper thighs. “Tell me,” he growled out. When she shook her head again, he pressed his teeth into her delectable skin. Just a little harder than he had on her other cheek.
“Oh God!” Sophia moaned. “Pirate!”
“Tell me!” he demanded.
“I can’t! I was sworn to secrecy!”
Pirate crawled his way onto the bed, straddling her as he did. He lowered his weight onto her as he lifted her hands above her head. Using one hand to hold both of her wrists, he used the other to move her hair out of his way. He took her left earlobe into his mouth, pulling on it hard, while grinding his hard dick against her bare ass. His jeans were so tight over his groin, it was uncomfortable.
“Sworn to secrecy by who?” he asked into her ear.
Sophia shuddered beneath him. “I can’t!”
“You can,” he growled against her. “You aren’t. There’s a difference—and that difference is how red you want your ass to get before I’m done with you. Tell me .”
“I don’t… I don’t want you to get angry.”
That cooled him off a bit. Sitting upright, still straddling her body, he turned her over onto her back beneath him. She stared up at him, but not in fear. More like concern, maybe? Was it for him or of him? Pirate didn’t like either option. He never wanted her to feel concerned around him. Did she think he would hurt her?
Softer, he asked, “Why would a secret you’re keeping from Jasmine make me angry?”
While breathing a little heavy, she too was calmer. Her hazel eyes bore into his as she admitted, “Because I slept with someone I shouldn’t have and I don’t want it to piss you off or hurt Jasmine.”
Pirate’s eyes narrowed. If he didn’t know any better, he would think she was referring to Jumper. But there was no way. Jumper would never hurt Jasmine like that. He also knew his brother hadn’t been with a woman in nearly ten years before getting with Jasmine. Not just because of the betrayal he’d felt from his ex-wife who’d cheated on him while Jumper had been overseas, but because one of the symptoms of Jumper’s PTSD was erectile dysfunction. Very few knew that fact about him. It wasn’t anyone’s business. Jumper had told Pirate in confidence that Jasmine helped calm him enough to get him out of his head, to the point where he rarely had an episode in months. Aside from the absolute love Pirate knew Jumper felt for Jasmine, he knew that Jumper would never cheat on Jasmine because he knew what it was like to have been cheated on. He would never put Jasmine through that.
And neither would Sophia. She might be keeping a secret from Jasmine, but she would never allow Jasmine to go through with a marriage to a cheating spouse, even if she was the one he’d cheated on her with.